credits: Leda Catunda, MAM, 1998. Photo: Romulo Fialdini
Modern art is often associated with abstraction, which is also a common feature of the work of contemporary artists. The origins of abstraction lie in the fragmentation of nature, or rather in magnifying a fragment to the point where it becomes detached from its original reference. Aldo Bonadei’s paintings, for instance, do not depict reality by way of point-by-point representation; instead, figurative elements from the still-life tradition are juxtaposed with geometrical abstraction. Similarly, Antônio Henrique Amaral isolates a small patch of a banana cluster—an emblem of Brazilian identity, shaped by economic and cultural associations, from Carmen Miranda to Tropicalism—to create a series of abstract green and yellow strips. Sandra Cinto’s delicate pen-and-ink drawings exist in a liminal space between figuration and abstraction, a dialogue that MAM has been engaged in since it was founded in the 1940s. Beatriz Milhazes, in turn, employs vivid colors and collage, combining geometrical patterns, circles, mandalas, and floral motifs. Artists such as Flávio Shiró, Samson Flexor, and Yves Klein transform gesture into painting, using brushes, paint, and even the artist’s or model’s own body as a medium of expression. (C.A.)
